End-of-life notice: American Legal Ethics Library

As of March 1, 2013, the Legal Information Institute is no longer maintaining the information in the American Legal Ethics Library. It is no longer possible for us to maintain it at a level of completeness and accuracy given its staffing needs. It is very possible that we will revive it at a future time. At this point, it is in need of a complete technological renovation and reworking of the "correspondent firm" model which successfully sustained it for many years.

Many people have contributed time and effort to the project over the years, and we would like to thank them. In particular, Roger Cramton and Peter Martin not only conceived ALEL but gave much of their own labor to it. We are also grateful to Brad Wendel for his editorial contributions, to Brian Toohey and all at Jones Day for their efforts, and to all of our correspondents and contributors. Thank you.

We regret any inconvenience.

Some portions of the collection may already be severely out of date, so please be cautious in your use of this material.

South Carolina Rules of Professional Conduct

[1] Paragraphs (a) and (b) refer
to lawyers who have supervisory authority over the professional work of a firm
or legal department of a government agency. This includes members of a partnership
and the shareholders in a law firm organized as a professional corporation;
lawyers having supervisory authority in the law department of an enterprise
or government agency; and lawyers who have intermediate managerial responsibilities
in a firm

[2] The measures required to
fulfill the responsibility prescribed in paragraphs (a) and (b) can depend on
the firm's structure and the nature of its practice. In a small firm,
informal supervision and occasional admonition ordinarily might be sufficient.
In a large firm, or in practice situations in which intensely difficult ethical
problems frequently arise, more elaborate procedures may be necessary. Some
firms, for example, have a procedure whereby junior lawyers can make confidential
referral of ethical problems directly to a designated senior partner
or special committee. See Rule 5.2. Firms,
whether large or small, may also rely on continuing legal education in professional
ethics. In any event, the ethical atmosphere of a firm can influence the conduct
of all its members and a lawyer having authority over the work of another may
not assume that the subordinate lawyer will inevitably conform to the Rules.

[3] Paragraph (c)(1) expresses
a general principle of responsibility for acts of another. See also Rule
8.4(a).

[4] Paragraph (c)(2) defines
the duty of a lawyer having direct supervisory authority over performance of
specific legal work by another lawyer. Whether a lawyer has such supervisory
authority in particular circumstances is a question of fact. Partners
of a private firm have at least indirect responsibility
for all work being done by the firm, while a partner in charge of a particular
matter ordinarily has direct authority over other firm lawyers engaged in the
matter. Appropriate remedial action by a partner would depend on the immediacy
of the partner's involvement and the seriousness of the misconduct. The supervisor
is required to intervene to prevent avoidable consequences of misconduct if
the supervisor knows that the misconduct occurred.
Thus, if a supervising lawyer knows that a
subordinate misrepresented a matter to an opposing party in negotiation, the
supervisor as well as the subordinate has a duty to correct the resulting misapprehension.

[5] Professional misconduct
by a lawyer under supervision could reveal a violation of paragraph (b) on the
part of the supervisory lawyer even though it does not entail a violation of
paragraph (c) because there was no direction, ratification or knowledge of the
violation.

[6] Apart from this Rule and
Rule 8.4(a), a lawyer does not have disciplinary
liability for the conduct of a partner,
associate or subordinate. Whether a lawyer may be liable civilly or criminally
for another lawyer's conduct is a question of law beyond the scope of these
Rules.